New track sensation Simon Yates had to tell a white lie in order to launch his cycling career – at the age of nine!

New track sensation Simon Yates had to tell a white lie in order to launch his cycling career – at the age of nine!

Now 20, the Bury biker marked his senior World Championship debut in Minsk last week by winning the 160 lap (40 km) Points race – the most energy-sapping event on the programme.

He now returns to life as a road racer while mum Susan and dad John are already saving up for Rio 2016 – just in case.

And the Redvales-raised talent, whose twin brother Adam is also an international cyclist, says his parents were the ones who introduced him to the sport.

But they, too, had to fib in order to join Eastlands Velo – the club whose former members include triple Olympic champion Jason Kenny.

Back from Belarus and before Yates flew out to a training camp in Majorca, the family spoke to M.E.N. Sport at the place it all began – Manchester’s National Cycling Centre.

“You had to be 10 to join Eastlands and I was still a few weeks or months away from my birthday,” smiled Simon, the eldest of the Yates boys by just a couple of minutes.

“I always thought I was too young so we just lied and said I was 10.

“Jason was a massive inspiration when I was still a young guy. He came through the Eastlands and Sportcity set-ups and showed it could be done.

“But he wasn’t the only one. My current flat mate, Chris Latham (from Bolton), Christian Lite and Steven Burke are all ex-Eastlands riders. It shows what a great club it is. “

The cycling gene, however, comes from his dad, who also ran competitively for Horwich RMI Harriers.

Tempted

“I’d had an accident, broke my collar bone and four or five ribs,” explained John.

“I couldn’t ride a bike or drive a car but the lads I used to cycle with brought me to watch the Monday Night Track League.

“The boys came with me and asked me to get them a go. I did and it just took off from there.

“With Eastlands, you initially have hour sessions on a Monday. Once you are good enough they invite you down on a Saturday, then it’s extra sessions and then you train on Wednesdays as well.

“With my two, they only did two Monday sessions before they were told they were good enough to go on Saturdays. But they were never pushed and always wanted to come. I remember arriving back from holiday and landing at Manchester.

“All we could get off them was: ‘Get us to the track’.”

Proud mum Susan added: “Both Simon and Adam have sacrificed a lot. When their mates were going out they always had to think about training.

“But at least when others may have been tempted by drink or drugs, I knew where my two were. And they haven’t turned out bad lads, have they?”

Yates, a former Derby High School pupil and Bury College student, is Britain’s first Points world champion since Chris Newton in 2002. In a thrilling race, he won by a single point from Spain’s Eloy Teruel.

Oldham-based Newton, who also won bronze seven years later and Olympic bronze in 2008, is now his coach and offered some sound advice when the marathon began.

“Chris told me to stay calm and not to panic in the early stages,” explained Yates.

“He reminded me how many medals he’d lost in World and Olympic Points races because he got involved too early and was then too tired at the end.

“So I sat back and watched the race develop rather than try to smash it from the start.

“It also helped I hadn’t raced a lot on the track before I got to Belarus. So even though the coaches had confidence in me, I was a bit doubtful.”

Indeed, the Points race is no longer one of the 10 current Olympic track disciplines having been axed after the 2008 Games in Beijing. A shorter version is included as part of the Omnium.

Yates tried out for the senior team pursuit squad last year but, by his own admission, isn’t built for speed. And with the possibility of Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish re-joining the pursuit squad for Rio, he would have been pushed further down the selection ladder.

“It is becoming such a sprint-orientated event and I am only a small guy,” he admitted.

“I would have to be at peak form all the time just to get in the team and then only get in as fourth man. So I told Chris I wanted to do full prep for the longer efforts like the Points race and the Madison.

“The only reason I was doing team pursuit was because it’s an Olympic event. But my forte is the bunch races.”

All is not lost yet, though, for Yates. The UCI, cycling’s world governing body, are looking at further changes to the programme for Rio 2016.

“There’s been talk the Points race may be coming back,” confirmed Yates. “Hopefully, it will and I will put my hand up for that.

“To be honest, though, I’d like to do a few years on the road before I really come back to the track.

“You can’t be doing short, sharp efforts all year round and expect to win a Points race. You need strength to last the event.

“If I have a few years on the road I can be even stronger – hopefully in Rio.”

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